Hunted Chapter 10
Opening my eyes, I found everything as it had been when I had passed out in Larxs arms. Calm and serene. I shifted position slightly to stare at the stars, and Larx put his hands on my arms. Watching the stars, I smiled slightly.
"Do you remember this?" Larx laughed.
"I could never forget. This is where I first woke up after you saved me. The Xetta nebula."
"And also where you promised me freedom. Where you said we would be together-"
"Forever free. Those were always the best times."
"Why?" I gulped slowly, beginning to feel the anger that had stung at me for the last few years I had after getting out of Ceberos. "Why...how could you betray me?" His grip tightened on my arm, and I winced.
"They knew, and were planning to kill you. I had to do something...I never knew I hurt you that bad."
"I waited Larx. I waited for you in Ceberos and you never came. I never believed you had done that, until about the...fifth round of what they called 'Shock therapy.' Then it clicked. Why didn't you come?"
"I tried. I swear. But they wouldn't let me." He sighed. "I tried to break you out too, but that place is locked down like..."
"A prison..." I took a sharp breath. "Now...then, why are you trying to bring me to my Trial?"
"Now, heres where you wouldn't listen before. Kai, you have to go. We can fake your death...eh...and then you can be free..."
"What was the 'eh' for?" I closed my eyes. There was always a catch. Nothing was ever easy. Why? The universe got twisted fun out watching us suffer.
"Well, you have an...er...ninety percent chance of actually dying. Like, not coming back kinda dying. I got a toxin from some alien plant that stops your 'heart' but for a short while preserves your body systems. And the poison might have side effects-"
"Whoa. Your going to poison me?"
"Well...yeah." I hissed under my breath. Well, this was a good plan. Lets kill Kai. Sighing, I weighed my other options. Stay? Probably be hunted down. Consequences were...death. Run? About the same odds. Trial? Dead Kai. Another assassination atempt? Zip chances. The ten percent chances of life this gave me were starting to seem very optimistic.
"Let me think about it. Its just...well..."
"You don't trust me."
"No. No I don't." I pushed myself to my feet, pulling off my gloves, and walked over to one of the razor vines. "I'm not up to trusting you -literally- with my life." I went to stroke the vine with my fingers, and Larx walked up behind me.
"Makes sense, really." His midnight flecked blue eyes narrowed at the sight of my hand. "Your really pale..."
I looked down, noticing the light, sickly tinge of my skin. "Oh. Its nothing." I brushed it off, as I hadn't really noticed. Probably just stress. Nothing big. Larx turned away, walking for the stairs to the upper-quarters.
"Still, I doubt you've had any life-sustaining food for a while." I laughed. That was true. Being an escaped fugitive didn't get you good meals. I had to synthetically create things, and they did not taste too great.
"Then Ill go explain to your demon-robot, and make something."
"Kay." He walked away, and I turned my attention back to the plant. As I ran my fingers along the vine, I began to notice how warm it felt. Or how cold I was. My fingers were tingling, numb for some reason.
"Well, what do you think? Should I..." I stopped, watching as the vine cringed. Literally. It looked as if it was pulling back from my touch, but couldn't. And seeing as I just had my fingertips on it, that was odd.
"Whats wrong?" As the words slid off my tongue, my hand got even colder. My fingers went rigid as I watched the vine stiffen, turn black and grey, and slump over to the side. Dead. How could it have died so fast? Did I?...Looking horrified down at my hand, I noticed I could see a faint silver blue glow on my fingertips. Soon, after I blinked, it was gone. The vine still lay dead, however, and I got slowly to my feet. Had I done that? No...I couldn't have. No living creature could do that...could they? I stared for a moment, grabbed my gloves, then began to walk upstairs. No...It wasn't me. It couldn't have been.
I made it about halfway up the stairs before I started to feel sick. Not just gradually, either. Full-blown-crawl-under-your-bed-and-die sick. Falling to my knees and sitting down, I lifted my interface to my face.
"Analyze blood. Report any toxins."
The screen came to life, and I could vaguely see something that looked like "Sy...m...V...r...s"
"What the..." It soon flickered, replaced by the normal screen.
"No toxins present. 100 health."
"Er...okay, then. Must just be a head rush." I got to my feet, walked a few more steps, and felt better. I could be taking the elevator, but I hated them. So much. The way they started and stopped unpredictably...I just disliked them. After making it up, I stopped in the center of my plant room waiting to be ambushed by the Harelquinn flower. But, as I watched, the plant creeped away. It always attacked. The thing was bred to feed on live, irken flesh, and the artificial or...human substitutes I made. I stepped towards it, still holding my gloves, and it made an odd hiss. The spiked points of the flower, 20 feet in diameter, folded up, and its vined arms wrapped around its stem.
"Okay. Now that is not normal." I raised my interface again. "Are you sure I'm at 100 health?"
"N-Yes. 100 health."
"Weird..." I pulled my gloves on over my pale skin, and walked into the living quarters to find Larx and whatever he was doing. The behavior of my plants bothered me, sending chills down my spine, but I pushed it out of my mine. It was this planets atmosphere. That was it.
"Yeah...the atmosphere...Its got to be the atmosphere..."
